Despite growing awareness, fair-trade cotton still makes up only 1 to 2 percent of the U.K. domestic retail market, and last year, sales dropped by 35 percent. The recession is partly to blame, but shoppers should shoulder some of the responsibility, as well. "We have become used to disposable fashion and lazy in our habits," writes journalist Elizabeth Day in the Observer. "Corporate buyers are unwilling to commit to bulk orders where there is little demand. And farmers, at the bottom of the supply chain, have been horribly failed."